Hurricanes keep season alive, edge Rangers in Game 4
Brady Skjei’s power-play goal broke a tie late in the third period to lift the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-3 win over the New York Rangers in Raleigh, N.C., on Saturday night, extending their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
With teammate Seth Jarvis screening New York goaltender Igor Shesterkin, Skjei broke a 3-3 deadlock at 16:49 of the third with a blast from the blue line. It was the Hurricanes’ first power-play goal of the series, ending an 0-for-16 drought.
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“Yeah, it was huge,” Skjei said about Carolina ending its power-play slump. “I mean obviously we always believe in our team. Obviously we weren’t coming back (from trailing in the game), but we believe we can always come back in a game. Giving up that lead was tough but nice to finally get one on the power play. Obviously it was a huge goal at the time. Try to keep moving forward and move it into New York.”
Evgeny Kuznetsov, Stefan Noesen and Sebastian Aho also scored for the Hurricanes. Teuvo Teravainen finished with two assists.
Frederik Andersen made 22 saves for Carolina in his return to net after not starting Game 3.
Will Cuylle, Barclay Goodrow and Alexis Lafreniere scored for the Rangers, whose seven-game winning streak to start the playoffs was snapped. Shesterkin made 27 saves.
“We dug ourselves a hole early,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “I don’t think it was because we weren’t ready to play. … There wasn’t a lot but the (chances) that we gave up were pretty noisy. They were loud and we’ve got to come out a little bit sharper than that. We were competing, we were working, we were trying to do our job offensively but there’s some things defensively that I thought we could have been a little bit better in the first period.”
The Rangers lead the best-of-seven series 3-1. Game 5 is Monday.
The Hurricanes took a 1-0 lead at 1:51 of the first period. Kuznetsov intercepted a Goodrow clearing pass in the neutral zone and took it to the top of the left circle before firing a wrist shot that went bar down blocker side on Shesterkin.
Noesen put the hosts ahead 2-0 at 6:33. Shesterkin saved a Teravainen shot from the left wall, but the rebound bounced into the slot, and Noesen, fresh off the bench, was there to backhand it into the net.
Cuylle cut the Rangers’ deficit in half at 8:06. Kaapo Kakko spotted him behind the Hurricanes’ defense for a breakaway, and he beat Andersen with a snap shot glove side.
Aho scored for the first time since Game 3 of the first round to re-establish the two-goal lead at 15:29. Brent Burns rimmed a pass along the right wall to Jake Guentzel behind the net, and Guentzel sent a short feed to Aho at the left hashmarks, where Aho snapped it over Shesterkin’s glove.
Stars top Avalanche again to take control of series
Tyler Seguin scored a go-ahead goal late in the second period and iced it with one into an empty net as the Dallas Stars beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-1 in Game 3 of their Western Conference semifinal series in Denver on Saturday night.
Logan Stankoven also had two goals and Jake Oettinger made 28 saves for Dallas, which leads the best-of-7 series 2-1 and regained home ice from Colorado. The Avalanche’s only lead in the series was Miles Wood’s overtime goal in Game 1.
The Stars can put Colorado on the brink of elimination with a win in Game 4 in Denver on Monday night.
The game Saturday was tied 1-1 when Dallas broke out on an odd-man rush. Evgenii Dadonov stickhandled into the left circle and sent a pass to Seguin on the other side of the net, and he redirected it by Alexandar Georgiev at 15:13.
Georgiev came off for an extra skater with 1:50 left and Seguin scored his third of the playoffs at 18:23. Stankoven scored another empty-netter, his second goal of the night, at 19:32.
Mikko Rantanen scored for the Avalanche and Georgiev turned away 19 shots.
Colorado winger Valeri Nichushkin failed to score a goal for the first time in eight playoff games. His seven-game goal streak to start the postseason is tied for the longest in NHL history with Pat LaFontaine.
